245 episodes

Feed your mind. Be provoked. One big idea at a time. Your brain will love you for it. Grab your front row seat to the best live forums and festivals with Natasha Mitchell.

Big Ideas ABC listen

    • Society & Culture
    • 4.4 • 1K Ratings

Feed your mind. Be provoked. One big idea at a time. Your brain will love you for it. Grab your front row seat to the best live forums and festivals with Natasha Mitchell.

    Julia Baird on how grace saves us from a dark world

    Julia Baird on how grace saves us from a dark world

    Grace is a hard word to define, but in her latest book, author, journalist and broadcaster Julia Baird explores the concept, and how finding and nurturing it in each other – and ourselves - can help us through dark times. 

    • 53 min
    The Deficit Myth with Stephanie Kelton — what to ask when governments can't afford to fix things.

    The Deficit Myth with Stephanie Kelton — what to ask when governments can't afford to fix things.

    When governments say they can't afford to fix climate change or lift kids out of poverty are they speaking the truth? American economist Stephanie Kelton challenges economic orthodoxy in her book The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People's Economy. She joins Natasha Mitchell in conversation at this 2024 National Sustainability Festival event.

    • 53 min
    Bessel van der Kolk on The Body Keeps the Score

    Bessel van der Kolk on The Body Keeps the Score

    Bessel van der Kolk, one of the world's foremost experts on trauma, discusses his pioneering research into traumatic stress and its impact on our brains and bodies. Traumatised people experience incomprehensible anxiety, numbing and intolerable rage. Trauma affects their capacity to concentrate, to remember, to form trusting relationships, and even to feel at home in their own bodies. And he explains promising treatments, including neurofeedback, psychedelic therapy, psychodrama … and dance.

    • 53 min
    Why are young people more unhappy and worried?

    Why are young people more unhappy and worried?

    Different generations agree that youth mental health is in decline, but disagree about the causes. We explore generational attitudes to the economic and social drivers of mental ill-health in young people.

    • 53 min
    Are we all liberals at heart?

    Are we all liberals at heart?

    Liberalism isn't just a political philosophy but the basis of a truly meaningful life. That's the bold statement of philosopher Alexandre Lefebvre, author of the forthcoming book Liberalism As A Way of Life. Should individuals be free to pursue their own passions and interests in life? Does liberalism mean more than freedom of speech and small government? You might not identify as a liberal, but are we in fact all liberals at heart?

    • 53 min
    Imagination and Mindset, and The Importance of Doubt (Boyer Lectures 3 and 4)

    Imagination and Mindset, and The Importance of Doubt (Boyer Lectures 3 and 4)

    Quantum computing is all about physics, but for those looking to pioneer and revolutionise science, there are certain human qualities needed as well. That is the topic of these final two Boyer Lectures with a global leader in the field of quantum computing, Professor Michelle Simmons.

    • 54 min

Customer Reviews

4.4 out of 5
1K Ratings

1K Ratings

ferikau ,

Housing

The program on aboriginal housing in NT was brilliant!!!

Regular RN devotee ,

Great, informative programme

This is one of my favourite programmes. It is informative, has well-credentialed speakers and covers a wide variety of topical issues.

LizAnne S ,

From the king and I to miss Saigon - how dull, how wome

Big Ideas is usually an interesting program. But this episode is full of wild and inaccurate assumptions. How dull.

It’d be a no star rating if it was possible to give zero stars.

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